You may find that the window "fogging" may get better as the weather gets warmer,

Flew one that was worse in the winter than the summer.

Learn the trick on how to get an engine started if you have a tach failure out in the boonies. Without the 10% switch in the tach you won't get it to start. There is a workaround in an emergency.

Start flying tomorrow.

That is one sweet ride.

Looking good James

Got about 4 hours in today. Quite a plane! Easy to fly yet not at the same time. Made a dozen or so take offs and landings and feel a lot better now than I did after the first 20 minutes. The plane is very honest but it's clear that the entire approach to flying has changed for me. Perhaps I should have had a more serious approach to flying all along but now it's very clear to me that there's just no choice in the MU2. I was behind the whole time. I can't even imagine IMC right now. It blows my mind that back in the day a guy could get some instruction in this thing and then go on about his business. No wonder the accident rate was high. The curve is steep and the road to proficiency has got to be at least a 100 hours long. I think 1000 and 3 miles will be my minimums for a long time. Power levers are elevator controls literally. Fuel flow is how you fly. Trim is your hot and sexy g/f who has bat$hit crazy twin and if you dial in the right one life is good. Dial in the bad one and you're in hell. Crosswinds are different and until you've done it in the Mits, you just don't know. Roll kills lift due to spoilers so how do you do crosswinds? Don't ask me, I only have 4 hours. Here's how I'll end this poor excuse for a pirep...
We finished the night headed bank to Smyrna from about 50 miles south. Brake release to 13500 ft was under 5 minutes. Level at 13500 265 tas 316 knots groundspeed. No pics? Did I mention I was behind the whole time? More tomorrow. 8:00am wheels up.

Jim,

Sounds great. Don't get discouraged. At the end of the week, it will start to feel natural and you will feel safe operating this incredible plane. Keep that MU-2 smile on your face!

Great PIREP Jim!
Keep it up!
Remember how behind you felt the first time you flew a Bo....??. Now you can do it in your sleep...
Same thing I suspect....
I bet you slept well. That's a lot of flying in one day in a new, complicated , demanding airplane!!
Keep us posted.

That is one good looking airplane. I like the grey paint job. Most MU2's I have seen are some version of white. Enjoy.

Jimmy Elza

Awesome report James! Way to go. I'm excited for you.

That was going to be true for any 300 knot turboprop you could have chosen.

You are teaching yourself to think at those speeds.

Right now you are soaking wet from drinking from a fire hose. Give it some time, take it one step at a time.

It was a windy day yesterday. I had 100 knot headwinds coming back from DC. So not the easiest day to start.


This is not really significant. Roll into the wind like any other airplane.

BTW, ailerons reduce lift, too, because they remove more lift on the down wing than they add to the up wing. This is precisely to counter adverse yaw.

The spoiler versus aileron thing is way overblown. Fly like you don't know you have spoilers.

Mike C.

James - that's a nice looking airplane! A good Pirep as well. When's your trip to Guatemala?

I have a question for MU2 owners/operators - what would be the real world range of a Marquise empty and with all seats full? What about cruise speed and fuel flow?

1200nm give or take a few hundred for weight.
Summer / Winter plays a factor with ability climb.
Probably 60gph if you dragged it to FL280.
85gph or so at FL200

MU-2B-60, Empty zero wind, 1366nm step climbing up to FL260 landing with 400lbs.

Full seats (9) with 300lbs of bags, mix of folks including kids, nobody over 175lbs, I would leave 500 lbs of fuel behind, cutting range to about 900NM with 600lbs reserve.

-Pascal

Full fuel range for a Marquise is probably around 1200 nm, though that's probably with skinny reserves (VFR OK, IFR with an alternate probably not). I would think 1100 nm would be more comfortable.

All seats full would require some fuel offload, because most of them have 11 seats. So you can haul a lot. Dunno range off the top of my head. Probably 7-800 nm.

Cruise speed in a Marquise should be around 275-280 ktas, a bit less when hot/high. Fuel flow is probably a little higher than Tom said, probably 65 gph if you can crawl up to FL280 (it doesn't get as high as the Solitaire as easily due to more weight). Probably 90 gph around FL200.

In my Solitaire, for fuel burn I estimate 600 pph for first hour, 500 pph subsequent hours. For a longer trip it's a hair better than that but it's still a useful rough estimate. Marquise has same engines except less derating, so I would guess those are still close in the rough estimate department, add 20-30 pph or something and it'd be pretty good.

edit: Listen to Pascal, he actually operates one, I'm just guesstimating.

Don't forget the OEI weight limits for positive climb gradient. Even at ISA you won't have a positive climb gradient at max gross. In a Marquise I think max weight for positive gradient on one engine is about 11000 lbs. It's not illegal to take off at max gross without a positive gradient OEI, and it's relevant only until the plane is clean and at 150 kts, which is about 30 seconds from rotation. Still, it's a factor one should consider.